Monday, October 21, 2013

Should our buse services go gothic?

An entrance veranda of Knox Church, captures the city's Gothic revival roots in modern form

It is to be hoped with an almost entirely new council elected that the Christchurch metropolitan area public transport system will be placed in "catch up" mode. Many of those elected have strong proven records of service on community boards - one is a former three-time city Mayor - or socially orientated organisations, . The pre-dominance of left leaning coalition People's Choice candidates, hopefully will also bring some greater sense of common purpose, which seemed to missing in the last fairly disparate and unreadable bunch of individuals.

In Christchurch public transport was on the "up and up" between 1992 and 2003, an inspiring turn around, but apart from a few new bus routes to outer areas, and cross town, very little more has been accomplished in public transport in following decade, if measured by the standards of many other cities.

So far this century over two billion dollars was spent on public transport infrastructure in Auckland and Wellington but I would guess less something less than $60 million in Christchurch. A significant portion of this was spent on the first Bus Exchange (locally funded? $20 million) which was munted in the earthquakes, and the simple but popular temporary bus station since. Other infrastructure expenditure would have been for installing Real Time and Metrocard; upgrading the number of simple bus shelters and recently building Northlands "super shelter"; completing about half the original bus lane programme planned to be completed by 2013; and some traffic signal and GPS bus tracking technology.

Much of the expenditure in Auckland and Wellington has been involved in upgrading or building from scratch commuter rail systems, but probably at least $500 million has gone on similar technology to Christchurch (as described above) and also busways, bus lanes and bus stations, including park and ride parking. Also the bus component (usually a fairly small portion) of the total cost of rail and bus centres such as Britomart and New Lynn, both of them architecturally designed to enhance the streetscape and the public transport experience.

Award winning New Lynn Bus and rail (underground) station in Auckland, built at a cost of $168 million, as shown in" Architecture NZ", May/June 2012 (a good magazine also for those who love city infrastructure).

One of the main attractions of light rail is often stated to be the inherent public confidence accredited a route by virtue of the permanent infrastructure.

Actually the world has hundreds of tram and rail and even underground rail lines that were built and sometimes even flourished for decades but have since been closed, removed, sealed over or abandoned. Viewed across the longer term the "permanent" aspect is more illusion than reality. But there is no doubt that good infrastructure says "this city takes public transport seriously" and "in our city public transport has status and is something more than just a 'last penny in the pound" "throw a few buses into the traffic" effort.

The popularity of The Orbiter, the Metrostar, The Shuttle, and now the Blue Line, also bear testament to the importance of good clear branding in making specific services easy to identify and access. These distinctive buses also, importantly, create a familiar and known or knowable city - for residents and short term alike - and even a certain pride, echoing London and its red double deckers, a sense of "our buses"

Rather than go any further down the road of the fairly mundane "industrial" style bus shelters inherent in Northlands and the current Central Bus Station (both temporary) no different from many millions of others around the world in form, NZ in Tranzit believes the city should consider looking for a defining style that distinguishes and brands all of the major public transport stations, and transfer nodes and any bus shelters that cover the whole footpath.

Indeed the same style in distinctive "large" and "medium" style could itself immediately indicate the level of service and facilities that passengers could be expect to find at that size station.

For example, I would expect a (large) transfer station to have public toilets with baby change facilities; a cash machine, a drinks machine; a pay phone (to back up cell phone failure); sections for both indoor and outdoor waiting (the latter partly roofed and partly open to sun etc) and a fully enclosed section of waiting room with automatic temperature modification system (at least eliminating the extremes of cold or heat) open at least till 8pm at night. (Large size) Transfer stations would also of course have CCTV - live and linked to a monitoring centre - bus stations should aim to be"safer than houses", safe zones which bad eggs avoid. Included of course, Real Time "next buses due" signage but also city route maps and paper format all services timetables. Ideally bus docking should be at close to door level (rather than conventional footpath height). In this scenario passengers can safely expect a transfer station to be served by three to six routes including at least two cross town routes, and be able to take it for granted that from a designated transfer station at least one route, or other, will take me to (a) city centre (b) university (c) airport.

Unlike local planners I find the concept of just six planned bus transfer stations (all based at the major malls) grossly inadequate, and believe that a second layer of about 12 bus "node points" is needed to create a city wide grid pattern bus system where it is possible to travel virtually anywhere across the city, with transfers, including minimum wait and very little doubling back and often as not easy to understand options. These node point transfer stops would mainly be at secondary malls and major people traffic zones - think Parklands, Burwood Hospital; Belfast, Sheffield Crescent, Avonhead Mall, Halswell etc.

In the branded-by-building style scenario these would echo the transfer stations but be smaller, have Real Time signage but have no public toilets (though usually some are handy), no en site money machine etc, and only semi-enclosed or wind and rain sheltered facilities. At a transfer node, rather than a full transfer station, one would expect to find only two or three routes intersecting and only one of these a cross town route, per se routed through other transfer stations. A key factor of transfer nodes - this current nonsense of making people walk hundreds of metres between one route and another, to transfer, would be eliminated as far as absolutely possible. All buses would be routed so they all pass through the same immediate stopping zone, albeit some may be on the opposite side of the road with pedestrian safety zones or signals to ensure ease of access between stopping platforms .

A key factor in the concept of branded transfer stations and branded transfer nodes is they have a distinctive design and I believe what better than a design that gives or retains an unique character to Christchurch.

Despite the earthquakes, and the likely loss of Christchurch Cathedrals and the loss of many beautiful [and some so-so] Victorian and Edwardian buildings I believe Christchurch will still be distinguished from other cities in the Southern hemisphere by its unusually large numbers of buildings in the Gothic revival style.

The Arts Centre [the old university complex]; the Museum, Christs College, the Provincial Government buildings, St Michaels and belfry tower, the Trinity Centre, the Christchurch Club on Latimer Square, spring straight from the core roots of Christchurch as a "conservative utopia" - recreating a fantasy of England before the ugly industrial revolution wrecked it all! This city was not a casual settlement that sprang up as most do at a crossroads or river or convenient harbor point, but avery consciously planned attempt by dissatisfied residents of the United Kingdom, keen to move forward but also build a better world.

I put forward the suggestion that the abstracted form of Gothic entrance way used on Knox Church, see photo above offers a very good and practical design. The uprights are essentially just steel poles, coupled together with steel ties, and along with the gothic arches could be made in kitset form - four poles joined for uprights on larger transfer stations, three poles on transfers nodes. Like wise the arches could be manufactured in two sizes, with lugs or ledges to fit reinforced glass roofing panels. Side wings at a flatter roof inclination plane could be added (the classic NZ "lean to" profile" ) as an option in needed for larger rooms. Being fairly steep and adding wide-gutters, these shelter roofs should largely self clean, not trap leaves and quickly disperse hail and snow.

Their pointed height will be a big advantage especially if a large illuminated "M" for Metro is inserted in the top part of a trefoil arch; likewise real time signage and cctv cameras can be fitted up into the roof cavity, way beyond the reach of vandals and taggers. Also heated trapped in this cavity should be easier to redirect down again with a slow moving redistibution fan.

We are a city rebuilding from an earthquake and one where there seems to be a contest in architecture going on called "How many ways can you make a square box look interesting?" (only a few as far as I can see!). The old pointy gothic style, with its vaguely religious overtones, restated in modern form, and use to make distinctive larger bus stations and transfer nodes really stand out in the streetscape, seems to me a very good way to say, buses not cars are what we should be worshipping!!

AVAILABLE NOW

Port to Plains, Over and Under the Port Hills, the Story of the Lyttelton Railway Tunnel, 204 pages, over 100 images. Can be purchased at most good bookshops. Or Click image to access, sample pages, online sales info

First bus off the rank .... and part of the reason for the rapid rise in Melbourne bus patronage . Recently retired blogster Melbourne&...

WELCOME TO NZ IN TRANZIT

This blog is mostly about public transport and social infrastructure in Christchurch, and transit around New Zealand. Also tracked; transit developments in similar sized cities in Canada and Australia, kindred in demographic patterns, for added perspective and inspiration. NZ in Tranzit blog covers some of the new transit technology and discusses public transport concepts in general, as well. Because the blogster's day-job is in a high profile customer industry to preserve some degree of privacy he appears only as a rabbit in his profile, albeit using his real name.

Christchurch is a city of metropop c 400,000 in Te Wai Pounamu, the southern of the larger islands of NZ. Public transport is operated under the auspices of a regional council with bus operations (and those of one small cross harbour ferry) tendered out to private operators including one owned by the City Council, Redbus. We have a modern clean fleet of buses which offer fairly frequent services to all city areas. The city has been quick to adapt new technologies such as low-floor buses, smart-card (arguably the best in the world!), GPS and Real Time signage and interactive text, and online type information systems. Our busiest route is The Orbiter, a service that circulates around the middle suburbs, and the ring of shopping malls, high schools and the city University about 4-5km from the centre of town

Christchurch also has restored trams operating on a central city circuit. Note [May 2011] - Sadly, due to two huge earthquakes (that took 182 lives) and multiple aftershocks much of the central city of Christchurch will be closed to public access for up to a year to allow the demolition of 900 severely damaged buildings. This includes a great many heritage buildings that previously gave the central city its distinctive character and (such was the exceptional ferocity of the second earthquake in February) even some of the high rises, possibly including those shown in photo above. Tram operations are suspended for at least a year. Many other parts of the city have resumed active life for both residents and tourists..

Locally designed and manufactured Gas-Electric hybrid buses offer a free inner city shuttle. The original Ashburton company Designline was sold to the US and 30 Designline buses are currently being trialled in New York . At a cost per passenger of less than a dollar subsidy and over a million passengers a year this was a very successful operation by any standard, alas suspended because of the closure of Christchurch's centre following the devastating Feb 22 earthquake

ROUTE MAP

LATEST ITEMS - Depending which doorway you came in by you may need to check out Archive Section [below] to get latest items. SEARCH use the search box at the top of page and keywords to find all postings and comments on any subject SUBSCRIBE - reminder you can subscribe [further down this column or by clicking on underlined word Atom at bottom of postings] to get regular dose of NZ in Tranzit sent directly to your email address. PHOTOS mainly by author or from Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted.

Recent boardings and blog position

6am November 1 2013 - the stats counter shows New Zealand page views, since the blog began in September 2009 just hit exactly 43,000 - not bad for an obscure blog about public transport, even allowing only a portion of these will be readers in the fullest sense.
However this dwarfed by US readership - three times the number, and total world readership.
Blogger Statistics feedback also show that NZ in Tranzit blog is currently (November 2013) averaging about 1,950 page views per week. This has been dropping to more realistic levels in recent months I suspect now that potential Designline investors in USA are out of the picture. Overseas readership is still about 85% of total readership.It is a bit of a weird imbalance, but costs me nothing.
The primary aim of NZ in Tranzit remains the same, to spread more advanced information, and to share new ideas, options and visions about public transport, in NZ and Christchurch. I feel a bit like some nutty hermit living in the wilderness, bearing witness to religious truth, unheard and mostly unlistened to, yet a very high percentage of what I am saying is merely passing on best practise concepts from overseas, nothing weird at all.

Total Pageviews

CONTACT & COMMENTS WELCOME

Any intelligent blog, carrying almost correct information [and that is as good as it gets, even in newspapers!] requires hours of research, data base filing and investigation of topics. It will also probably draw upon a depth of experience that only comes with years of committed passion or involvement in the main subject areas. It's a lot of fun but also a lot of work, dozens of threads with which one must try to stay upto date. The downside of blogging, especially in periods of little feedback, is the feeling of talking into outer space with no obvious response, other than the page view counter ticking over (and perhaps this is just a mean joke by blogger geeks, a totally spurious invention to deceive bloggers someone is listening!) In these circumstances even one line responses, "right on" or "thanks for that info" or even "load of crap!" provides at least some morale boost.
NZ in Tranzit (aka the dwatted Wabbit -pops up everywhere ) welcomes all sorts of feedback, comments, opinion pieces or letters for and agin ideas put forward.
Apart from ticking the boxes or posting comments in the boxes provided, interested persons can also email information or comments off-site directly to Tranzwatch@gmail.com. It is recognised some readers are employed in transit or hold elected office, adding to the sensitivity involved. Be assured all correspondence or information sent to the email address is treated as totally private, except in the broadest sense of helping formulate a broader more accurate.

Auckland Commuter Rail Upgrade

Part of the massive makeover of Auckland's long neglected commuter rail network. A DMU from Waitakere in the West entering Newmarket's new multi-level station; buildings immediately above tracks are residential apartments; behind the train a double tracked in all directions triangle will allow increased options for trains entering or leaving Britomart

Who's Driving this Omnibus edition?

Former Christchurch city bus driver and transport historian, author of many letters to newspapers and articles for publications. Has contributed many formal submissions and informal suggestions to city and transit authorities, from Taupo to Texas and, mostly, in hometown Christchurch NZ. A madness spanning 30 years!! Think global - act local....as Normandy in 1944 was won hedgerow by hedgerow so must a sustainable world be built bus stop by bus stop!! .